Ever After High: Secret Storybooks

Chapter Thirteen: Lizzie Hearts

I know Cerise loves food, but even she should have seen the poison apple thing coming. What am I to do while she's unconscious? What if she never wakes up? What will I do then? I can't just leave her here. I took Cerise by the arms and dragged her over to the biggest of the eight beds at the back of the cottage.

I stepped into the little dwarf-sized cottage to come up with an idea of what to do next. I sat in a wooden chair that was a few sizes too small and began to think through the Snow White story. After the Evil Queen disguised as a witch gives Snow White the apple, Snow White is put in the glass coffin and everyone waits for Prince Charming to come. True love's kiss happens and Snow White wakes up... They live happily ever after, except for the Evil Queen.

So I need to find Prince Charming, who should be Cerise's true love, to wake her up. First instinct: call up every Ever After guy in the contacts of my phone.

Just then, the door opened up and seven tiny people entered. When they noticed me here and Cerise, fast asleep, on the bed, their expressions changed from content to stressed. I know I'd changed back to my regular form, and the dwarves seemed to be able to tell that I didn't mean to hurt her- maybe because the Evil Queen herself wouldn't care enough to wait and see if she recovers.

"I-"

"We know what happened- you gave her the poisoned apple by accident and she took it and now she's in a deep sleep. We need to find the Prince," a dwarf in a red hat with a bushy white beard said.

"Where could we find him?" I asked, standing up. I was short enough to not bump my head on the ceiling.

"Go to the castle, look around there. We'll set up the glass coffin," the dwarf responded.

So I went on my way as if I totally knew which direction the castle was in.

*

After running and wandering down a worn path for about a half hour, the gates of the kingdom were in sight. They were made of a shining silver metal and were left surprisingly wide open. I rushed into the village and asked the first person I saw to point me in the direction of the castle. I found it a few moments later.

Now, how to find the Prince...

"Help! Help! I'm a damsel in distress and I need help!" If the Prince is like the princes I know, that'll be good enough.

"Hold on fair maiden! I'm on my way!" A familiar voice said, and an even more familiar figure appeared as the doors swung open. "Lizzie?"

"Daring?"

"So.... What's the problem?" He said, awkwardly staring at the ground.

"Um..." I considered not saying anything to keep this from getting too awkward but I knew that if I didn't tell him, there was no chance of him possibly waking her up. "It's Cerise... She took a bite of this apple, and I guess it was poisoned, because she fell into a-" air quotes on this part for dramatic effect, "deep, deathlike sleep."

"Oh grimm, where is she? We need to get there now!" Daring said, clenching his hands into fists.

"A little dwarf house outside of the woods, I know the way," I said. Suddenly, the situation felt a lot more real and urgent and my world got a lot scarier.

Daring called for his horse and then got on it. He helped me up and I sat behind him. I had to hold onto his shoulders so I wouldn't fall off but it wasn't awkward this time. We aren't important right now. Saving Cerise is.

*

"Cerise!" Daring and I busted through the door of the Dwarf house (without breaking it of course).

"Prince Charming, we need your help, you need to kiss the girl!" The dwarf that seemed to do all the talking cried frantically.

"Wait, kiss Cerise?" Daring stopped where he was standing, like he wasn't sure about that. It's what needs to be done to reverse he curse!

"You have to," I mumbled, almost inaudibly under my breath.

There was no response from Daring for a few moments, and then I turned around. I didn't want to see true love's kiss in action... I didn't really want to believe that true love actually exists.

Within a few seconds, I'd spun back around to find Cerise awake again- and then the room started spinning and everything went blank.

We all woke up, as if from a nap, in the exact places we'd been sitting on the log benches back around the campfire. It was morning. Hunter and Ashlynn were there, and so were Poppy, Sparrow, and Apple.

"Where were you guys?" I asked them.

"Red Riding Hood," Hunter and Ashlynn said at the same time.

Poppy and Sparrow briefly glanced at each other before quickly looking away again, and neither of them said anything.

"Pinnochio- being a puppet is hard!" Apple complained.

"We were in Snow White- we all read from the stories we were in." I paused and looked at Sparrow and Poppy, neither of which looked at each other or me. "So, wait, you two were in Rapunzel?"

"Let's not talk about it," Sparrow grumbled.

"Yeah," Poppy muttered in agreement.

Cerise looked at Daring now as if everything had just processed and now something clicked in her head. "You kissed me and the spell broke?"

Daring nodded.

Cerise opened her mouth to say more but ended up staying silent. She turned her head away again and went back to her thoughts.

I guess Daring didn't realize it either, but I know what Cerise noticed. Daring was able to break the spell that only true love's kiss could break. That means that Daring is Cerise's true love and vise versa.

Whoa.